It's hard to gauge his performance considering he barely has any formation of a decent roster to work with. How can you blame him for not having an even remotely balanced lineup?

Probably because he's worse than both Renny and Kreuger, who both had worse teams to work with.

Then you start adding stuff in like his obsession with fitness playing players 25+ minutes a game "just because, the horrifically bad special teams which were good until him and his buddy Acton took over, routinely getting destroyed by opposing coaches in line up matches even when he has last change, taking all of training camp plus another month to figure out the team didn't have a strong grasp of the defensive fundamentals, the non-existent effort to hold the team accountable after talking a huge game about tying together performance and ice time in the summer.

Worst coach this team has had since George Burnett, and that's saying something considering the intervening years includes a senile Pat Quinn.

And on top of all the injuries, our goaltending has been awful this year. I don't think any coach would do well under such circumstances.

The only real area where I really put the blame on Eakins is our special teams. With our skill and previous success on the PP, its a shame that our PP and PK have been this bad.

I think the PK has more to do with management.. The guys MacT was so quick to get rid of (Belanger, Horcoff, Petrell) were all top PK guys. Unfortunately they were replaced with Gordon, Acton and Gadzik.

Gordon is fine, but he's essentially Horcoff. Acton isn't good on the PK (he's a rookie, who would have thought...) and Gadzik never PKs.

I think the PK has more to do with management.. The guys MacT was so quick to get rid of (Belanger, Horcoff, Petrell) were all top PK guys. Unfortunately they were replaced with Gordon, Acton and Gadzik.

Gordon is fine, but he's essentially Horcoff. Acton isn't good on the PK (he's a rookie, who would have thought...) and Gadzik never PKs.

All in all, BIG step back on the PK.

Management doesn't choose to send the skilled players out there on the PK. PP and PK are both on coaching 100%.

For the first time after watching the game against florida I am thinking his defensive zone plan. aka "the swarm" is a bad idea.

Goal #2 where Hopkins chases the puck carrier with another Oiler and leaves his man open to receive the pass.

Either a terrible move by Hopkins or exactly what the coach is trying to implement. If so terrible defensive zone coverage.

Combine that with how low our forwards are in the defensive zone and how deep Dub plays in his net and we have a wonderful recipie for the worst goals against the league has ever seen.

A lot of the goals against this year, and all of them at florida, were in situations where the puck made it through "the swarm" and the opposing player with the puck had a ton of time and space to do whatever they wanted with it.

His PP strategy and player choices confuse me. Why are we using certain skill guys on the PK, Eberle is scared to block a shot. We're wasting our skilled players energy having them kill off a PK. I'd rather us have a penalty killed off then to increase our chances to score a short handed goal. Use our top 6 forwards on the PP, use our bottom six on the PK, with the occasional sub in from the other group.

Top six forwards who should never see time on the PK: Eberle, Yakupov, Hemsky.
Top six forwards who should see minimal time on the PK: RNH, Hall, Smyth
Top six forwards who should see regular PK time: Perron, Gagner

A lot of the goals against this year, and all of them at florida, were in situations where the puck made it through "the swarm" and the opposing player with the puck had a ton of time and space to do whatever they wanted with it.

His PP strategy and player choices confuse me. Why are we using certain skill guys on the PK, Eberle is scared to block a shot. We're wasting our skilled players energy having them kill off a PK. I'd rather us have a penalty killed off then to increase our chances to score a short handed goal. Use our top 6 forwards on the PP, use our bottom six on the PK, with the occasional sub in from the other group.

Top six forwards who should never see time on the PK: Eberle, Yakupov, Hemsky.
Top six forwards who should see minimal time on the PK: RNH, Hall, Smyth
Top six forwards who should see regular PK time: Perron, Gagner

Gagner is a horrible PKer. Realistically, the team needs 2-3 PK forwards. Right now Gordon and Jones are the only respectable penalty killers.

While Oiler fans want to burn management to the ground, this idiot get a multi year leash.
On paper we are not this bad. Better on paper than last year.
I fault Eakins 100% for current mess. Can't stand this guy, please fire him, please.
Wish we would have gotten Maurice first...